Chapter 523: The Belated War

Chapter 523 -377: The Belated War

Barely a month after Isaac returned from the Little World and completed the preliminary organization of his research on the Power Crystal Stone fusion ritual, a long-overdue war finally erupted…

The Xuelan Kingdom, the Rex Kingdom, the Shuuste Kingdom Alliance, and the Autex Empire simultaneously declared war on the Terra Kingdom!

The first three were kingdoms that had recently broken away from the Terra Empire. The first two, whose rulers had once been Dukes of the Terra Empire, shared a direct border with what remained of the Terra Kingdom. The third was a Kingdom Alliance, formed by a motley collection of small nations founded by various independent Counts.

It is worth mentioning that the Solomon Kingdom was also part of this Kingdom Alliance.

However, precisely because the Alliance’s composition was so complex, its participation felt more like it was just going through the motions compared to the all-out assaults of the first two kingdoms—a way to avoid looking out of place.

But this was to be expected. A starved camel is still bigger than a horse, after all. In terms of the quantity and quality of both Extraordinary Powerhouses and Extraordinary Armies, the entire Kingdom Alliance combined was no match for the Terra Kingdom. Moreover, most of their territories weren’t even adjacent, so they had little real appetite for war.

They were nowhere near as frenzied as the first two.

The truly frenzied one, however, was the Autex Empire!

Whether it was the two kingdoms fighting in earnest or the Kingdom Alliance merely going through the motions, their objective was actually quite simple: to take advantage of the crisis and viciously tear off a piece of the spoils.

But they had no intention of actually bringing down the Terra Kingdom, nor did they have the power to do so.

But the Autex Empire was different. It was an Orc Empire!

Dominated by Orcs, it possessed a natural hostility toward the human-centric Terra Empire. Add to that a millennium of countless wars between the two great Empires, and the hatred between them was already thick.

Therefore, upon confirming that the Terra Royal Family’s sole remaining Demigod was all but dead, the Autex Empire immediately decided to kick them while they were down, preparing to crush the Terra Empire completely!

Although orders from several Tier Six Demigod Mages prevented the Autex Empire from completely annihilating the Terra Kingdom, the Demigod Mages had only promised to keep the Terra Royal Family from being utterly extinguished. For the Autex Empire, it was enough to simply eliminate the talented members of the royal line.

And this was the very reason such a large-scale war, one that swept across the entire Void, could erupt in the first place!

That’s right. This was not an ordinary war confined to the Real World!

It was only after advancing to Tier Four that Isaac learned that a so-called Empire’s domain included not only its vast territories in the Real World, but also the Little Worlds it was developing within the Boundless Void!

And compared to the picked-over lands of the Real World, the Boundless Void was their primary target!

Not only could they effectively annihilate the Terra Kingdom’s viable forces, but they could also harvest a vast amount of resources. If they were lucky enough to stumble upon a Little World in the midst of fusion, it would be an absolute jackpot!

The situation on the battlefields of the Boundless Void was reflected in the Real World. Besieged by the four-pronged attack, the Terra Kingdom was in constant retreat!

On the top floor of the Mage Tower, Isaac glanced at the plea for help from the Terra Kingdom and casually tossed it aside. ‘As long as they don’t go after the Little World I’m currently fusing, I can’t be bothered to get involved in this.’

‘The wars between Empires… the currents run too deep. I can’t get a handle on it!’

Even when the Terra Royal Family tried to entice him with a Floating City, he remained unmoved.

After tossing the plea for help aside, Isaac immediately began preparing the ritual for the Power Crystal Stone fusion.

Of course, the ritual was not yet perfected and still required many adjustments. However, making further changes to the physical setup was certain to be more efficient than adjusting it on paper.

After all, unlike others, he could see the data intuitively.

「Half a year passed in this state of adjustment…」

Over the past six months, the long-overdue war in the outside world had finally exploded in full force!

The flames of war had spread across nearly the entire Real World!

Even Isaac’s domain, carved out in the depths of the Dark Wilderness far from any settlements, experienced some harassment. Fortunately, his personal power was formidable, and unlike the Terra Kingdom, he didn’t control vast resources in the Boundless Void, so he didn’t draw too much attention.

However, as the war’s intensity escalated in recent days, Isaac had instinctively begun to consolidate his forces, preparing for the conflict that might spill over at any moment.

After all, it wasn’t as if he had nothing of value; that Little World still needed another seven years to fully complete its fusion!

Furthermore, that world had been discovered by the Terra Kingdom, so there was no telling when others might learn of its existence. He had to be on guard.

For this reason, Isaac also recalled Demon Eye Soron, who had been concentrating on research within the Little World.

…

On the top floor of the Mage Tower, Isaac gazed at the Ritual Array before him and nodded in satisfaction. After six months of corrections, he had finally pushed the ritual’s fault tolerance to its maximum value of one thousand!

Achieving this was no easy feat. Much like with a world-correction ritual, the cost of maxing out the fault tolerance at this level was astronomical!

But he had no choice. This was a fusion with a Tier Six Authority—one an Evil God had willingly discarded, no less. He simply wouldn’t feel safe unless the fault tolerance was maxed out.

Of course, another important reason was that he had benefited from finding a “buffer” in the Endless Sea called [Aura of Authority]. The name sounded quite impressive and very high-level.

In reality, however, it was nothing special. Compared to true authority, it was only peripherally related and had no real practical use.

It was said that some Wizards had tried to extract the Concept of Authority from it, hoping to master Authority itself!

Unfortunately, there had been no results to date.

From the looks of it, they must have failed. ‘I don’t even need to use my Golden Finger to check the data,’ he mused. ‘After all, if anyone had succeeded, I wouldn’t have been able to collect so much of this stuff.’

At present, its greatest use was exactly what Isaac was using it for: fusing with an Authority.

However, the efficiency was extremely low, and it was only effective on Tier Three Authorities.

After making one last adjustment to the ritual and ensuring there were no errors, Isaac cautiously took out a Crystal Stone shimmering with a sickly, iridescent light. He placed it opposite himself, forming the core of the ritual along with him.

Then, with a mere thought, an invisible ripple of Magic Power spread out. Wisps of [Concept] drifted from the ritual materials, surging toward the Power Crystal Stone. They wrapped around its surface, rapidly forming layer upon layer of seals!

As the seals formed, the Crystal Stone’s Power Level plummeted, quickly dropping to Tier Four, the same as Isaac’s.

Only then did it begin to slowly merge into Isaac’s body…

This Sealing Power was the key to how Isaac could fuse with a Tier Six Authority, far surpassing his own level. As Isaac’s own power grew, the seals on the Authority would slowly be released…

Ordinarily, that’s how it would work.

But the [Analysis] Authority was special!

Once the fusion was complete, Isaac would be able to use the power of the [Analysis] Authority to analyze the seals themselves. By doing so, he could ignore the seals, unleashing the Authority’s full power without any negative repercussions to himself!

Of course, this cheat-like shortcut was only possible with a purely supportive Authority like [Analysis]. If it had been a combat-type Authority, this would be utterly impossible.

One could either release the seals step-by-step, gradually unleashing the Authority’s power, or have one’s soul be overwhelmed and shattered by its immense might. There was no third option!